Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 17, 2022

Mars mission on hold indefinitely after European Space Agency cuts ties with Russia

The European Space Agency (ESA) has unanimously voted to suspend a joint Mars mission with Russia. The mission was slated to blast off for the Red Planet later this year, but that launch is now on hold indefinitely. On Thursday (March 17), the Council of the ESA said that due...

Apr 21, 2022

Martian crater looks just like a human fingerprint in this incredible new image

NASA has released a stunning image of a unique crater on Mars with strange, luminous ridges that give it the appearance of a human fingerprint. The crater in the photo is known as Airy-0, a 0.3-mile-wide (0.5 kilometer) depression that sits within the much larger Airy crater, which is around...

Apr 22, 2022

Mars’ death-spiraling moon captured in gorgeous eclipse video

NASA’s Perseverance rover has captured the clearest ever footage of a solar eclipse over Mars, and the results are out of this world. The rover snapped the ethereal video of Mars’ potato-shaped moon, Phobos, moving across the face of the sun on April 2. During the eclipse, Phobos projected its...

Apr 27, 2022

2 giant marsquakes rock the far side of the Red Planet

NASA's marsquake-hunting lander has detected its two largest seismic events to date — and on the far side of the planet, no less. NASA's InSight lander touched down on Mars in November 2018 carrying the most sensitive seismometer ever designed. Since the mission's arrival, it has detected countless events dubbed...

Apr 28, 2022

Mars helicopter photographs wreckage of its own landing gear in eerily desolate image

The Mars helicopter Ingenuity has snapped eerily desolate photographs of the spent parachute and backshell that conveyed it to the Red Planet. The unprecedented images, which look like scenes from an apocalyptic sci-fi movie, come courtesy of the little helicopter's 19th flight on Tuesday (April 26). They show the apparatus...

May 5, 2022

Scientists discover bizarre 'worm-like' aurora stretching halfway across Mars

On clear Martian nights, long, snake-like ribbons of light may streak through the sky for thousands of miles. It's a pretty sight, according to new observations from the United Arab Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) — and it represents a strange new type of aurora never seen before on any planet....

May 13, 2022

The 'doorway' seen on Mars is not for aliens. Here's how it really formed.

No, this is NOT a doorway for Martians. Although the internet erupted on Thursday after a photograph from NASA's Curiosity rover appeared to show an alien door, experts are pretty sure it's just a natural feature of the Martian landscape. This is a very curious image, British geologist Neil Hodgson,...

Jun 25, 2022

Bizarre 'polygons' are cracking through the surface of Mars

It's springtime on Mars and the mysterious polygons are in bloom, a new image from the orbiting High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HIRISE) camera shows. Recorded on March 30, 2022, the image reveals a patchwork of white zig-zags cracking across the Martian soil at high latitudes, with occasional sprays of black...

Jul 19, 2022

Mars' oldest meteorite traced to strange double impact crater

Researchers have traced the oldest known Martian meteorite to its exact origin point using artificial intelligence (AI), and the findings could help reveal what conditions on our solar system's planets were like during their very first days. The 11-ounce (320 grams) meteorite, officially dubbed Northwest Africa 7034 but commonly known...

Aug 11, 2022

Mysterious mineral on Mars was spat out by an explosive eruption 3 billion years ago

A mysterious Martian mineral that has perplexed scientists since its discovery seven years ago may have been spat out during an unusual volcanic eruption, researchers have revealed. The mineral, which is normally only found on Earth, was likely formed on the Red Planet more than 3 billion years ago. NASA's...

Aug 16, 2022

Mars: The Red Planet

Mars, the fourth planet from the sun, is a dry, rocky world whose iconic red color has earned it the nickname the Red Planet. Mars has fascinated people throughout history, and today, it is one of the most explored bodies in the solar system, with many rovers and orbiters searching...

Oct 13, 2022

First Martian life likely broke the planet with climate change, made themselves extinct

Ancient microbial life on Mars could have destroyed the planet’s atmosphere through climate change, which ultimately led to its extinction, new research has suggested. The new theory comes from a climate modeling study that simulated hydrogen-consuming, methane-producing microbes living on Mars roughly 3.7 billion years ago. At the time, atmospheric...

Oct 26, 2022

Bacteria could survive underground on Mars for hundreds of millions of years, new study finds

As Elton John once sang, Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids; in fact, it's cold as hell. But new research suggests that Martian chill could allow bacteria to survive for up to 280 million years below the planet's surface. The finding raises hopes that traces of...

Oct 31, 2022

Massive Martian meteor impact was largest ever recorded in solar system

On Dec. 24, 2021, a magnitude 4 marsquake rocked the Red Planet, triggering sensors on NASA's Insight lander. Now, scientists know exactly what shook things up. Before and after images captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed it was a meteoroid impact –— the largest on record in the entire...

Nov 16, 2022

Mars may be slowly ripping its largest moon apart

Mars' largest moon Phobos shows signs of being ripped apart by the extreme gravitational forces exerted on it by the Red Planet, a new study shows. Researchers have revealed that the unusual grooves covering Phobos' surface, which were previously assumed to be scars from an ancient asteroid impact, are actually...